Syrians are pictured gathering near the Tigris River to cross over the border into Iraq in August, 2013.

UNHCR: G Gubaeva

The Federal Government has announced it will resettle 500 Syrian refugees as part of its humanitarian refugee program.

The places will be quarantined for Syrians within the existing annual refugee intake, which is capped at 13,700.

The United Nations says the Syrian crisis is a humanitarian tragedy which has killed more than 100,000 people and driven around 6.5 million others from their homes.

More than 2 million refugees have fled Syria, many crossing the borders into Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, and the international refugee agency UNHCR has called for the pressure on Syria's neighbours to be eased.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the commitment to resettle the refugees was made in response to the UNHCR's request.

He says the Government will work with the UNHCR to determine who gets the places, and that they will focus on highly vulnerable people in urgent need of protection.

Mr Morrison says the decision should not be interpreted as an encouragement for asylum seekers to get on boats bound for Australia.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council has called on all parties in the Syrian conflict to agree to humanitarian pauses in the fighting, and to provide routes for aid convoys.

In a non-binding consensus statement, the council says there should be unhindered humanitarian access across conflict lines and across borders.

The statement calls for the urgent, safe and unhindered delivery of assistance to hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the conflict.